James Van Der Beek and Nice Guys

Every once in awhile, a seemingly uninteresting, milquetoast celebrity will step out of the woodwork and prove to be hilarious and awesome. Josh Groban, the apparently bland good boy, started hinting at his secret awesomeness ever since he appeared in Jimmy Kimmel’s “I’m Fucking Ben Affleck” video.  By the time he guest-starred on Glee, referring to himself in the third person and hitting on Debra Monk’s character because “Josh Groban likes a blowsy alcoholic,” he had already cemented his Secretly Awesome status, and he furthered the excellent impression this week by singing Kanye West’s Tweets.

And this week, another celebrity stepped forward and showed that he, too, was Secretly Awesome: James Van Der Beek.

Dawson’s Creek is a show that holds a special place in my heart, as it was the program that first brought me to the Internet at the ripe age of fifteen.  I, with the rest of the Dawson’s Creek fandom, laughed along with Dawson’s crying face when Joey left him on the docks in the season three finale.  As it turns out, James Van Der Beek can laugh about it too.  On James Van Der Memes, he mocks his hideously bad crying with a 10th anniversary edition.

Brilliant.  Absolutely brilliant.  And he continues to capitalize on his Dawson’s Creek fame by making an “Asshole for Hire” video.

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I laughed at this video.  It didn’t even bother me on a feminist level, because the object of humor in this case is James Van Der Beek himself and the scummy guys who pay him…to sexually assault their girlfriends…okay, maybe it does bug me on a feminist level a little.  It’s more of a small annoyance, though, as the thesis of the video seems to be “guys are pigs” rather than “women deserve to be treated like crap,” so I’ll let it go.  This time.

HOWEVER.  I do object to this video on the level of pure inaccuracy.

That’s because, of the many, many Dawson’s Creek fans I spoke with, I knew exactly one who watched the show for Dawson.  Most of us watched the show in spite of Dawson.

In fact, we hated Dawson, to the point where we would refer to the show as The Creek when it came on every Wednesday night and pretend that Dawson wasn’t even on it.

Why didn’t we like Dawson?  Because, despite what James Van Der Beek says in this video, he wasn’t a nice guy.  He was a Nice Guy – the kind of guy that thinks he’s nice when he really just acts nice to women he wants to date/sleep with and then throws an entitled hissyfit when the woman would rather date a so-called “jerk” (translated: a guy who will actually ask her out).  Dawson pulled the Nice Guy act with both of his girlfriends – Jen and Joey.  He slut-shamed Jen when it turned out her sexual history was less than pure (meaning, she actually had a sexual history), and he put Joey on the shelf and expected her to just wait around until he was ready to date her again.  Of course, when Joey became seriously interested in someone else, Dawson handled it completely maturely, by manipulating her into attending prom with him as “just friends” when he planned to mack on her all night, by acting as though Joey was his toy to own and play with whenever he wanted, and challenging the guy she really liked in a boat race where he almost killed the other guy.  I would honestly rather date the “asshole” character James Van Der Beek plays in this video, than Dawson.

And Dawson continued to be a jerk forever and ever, amen – until season five, where, from what I understand, he became a genuinely nice guy, but by then the show had irritated me and bored me so much that not even the presence of the always hilarious Busy Phillips could get me to watch.

So, why did us girls watch the show when we couldn’t stand, or were indifferent to, the title character?

One word: Pacey. Mmmm, Pacey.  Stupid name for a wonderful character, played by the adorable Joshua Jackson.  He was everything that Dawson was not.  He would make incredible, romantic gestures for the girl he loved even if he didn’t think he had a chance in hell of winning her affection.  When Joey’s mural was defaced, he bought her a wall so she could make a new one, and offered it to her in the charming way he always did:

Pacey was to teenage girls what Mr. Darcy is to adult women.  He was the reason that we watched the show.  (Well, I also watched because I loved Michelle Williams as Jen From New York, but I was in the minority there).  And not so long ago, Joshua Jackson made his OWN video with Funny or Die, celebrating PaceyCon:

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I love celebrities that can take the piss out of themselves.

And in watching these videos, I have to stand by my original opinion.  James Van Der Beek, you are much more awesome than I ever gave you credit for and I give you MASSIVE kudos for making fun of yourself, especially the crying face – but I’m afraid that, even ten years later, Pacey still wins.